Luke Says Re-registration turned to Political Football

Last week we reported that the Belize National Teachers Union had joined the call for a re-registration exercise to take place this year as scheduled. President of the BNTU, Luke Palacio today spoke on the issue.

LUKE PALACIO

“Basically our position is that the law is there and the law states that there should be a reregistration every ten years and we know that both major political parties have played political football with this matter as far as we are concerned. The matter becomes even more concerning now with the revelations coming out of the special senate inquiry into this immigration report from the AG and if our electoral lists have been padded for whatever reason is those persons were illegally issued their nationality and allowed to vote then it really compromises our democracy. We’ve heard of these things happening for many years now and yet we allow it to continue and then people vote, they leave us here holding the bag whether the government performs well or not and they would have been beneficiaries of such actions. So we are saying when the BNTU protested and went on strike for 11 days our mantra was for good governance and good governance means that the government must abide by the laws of this country and that is what we are fighting for. Basically our membership through our council of management are very much concerned about this matter and we trust that the government will look at it and even the opposition and the other political parties must look at it with the objective of clearing up that voters list so that our democracy can be a true reflection of what the Belizean people desire.”

Palacio said their plan of action will be determined after they meet with members.